New York daily tribune no. 5207

FROM WASHINGTON.
From Our Own Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, Thursday, Dec. 24,1857.
There are strong symptoms that the Administra-tion intends to abandon or evade the issue it has made on the Kansas question. The more timid or the more prudent of the slave holding directors of the President are beginning to feel alarm at the ominous look of the storm they have raised; and though the fire-eaters continue to urge them for- ward, they foresee and hesitate. A considerable portion of the Southern leaders are not yet ripe for the scheme of disunion and civil war which is at the bottom of the attempt to drive the Free-State men of Kansas into initiating revolutionary move-ments. Their plans hitherto have extended no far-ther than the intellectual and moral subjugation of the Democratic party to a thorough going and avowed Pre-Slavery policy, with the hope of nominating and electing a slaveholder to the Presidency in 1860. Their object has been sufficiently accomplished as the ready acquiescence, or rather active coopera-tion, of a Northern President, the Northern mem-bers of the Cabinet, and a majority of the Northern Democratic Senators and Representatives, and of Northern Democratic presses, in the attempt to force a Pro-Slavery Constitution upon Kansas—an attempt persisted in, not from any expectation of practical success, but simply to degrade the North-ern Democracy and purge it of any lingering re-mains of opposition to the supremacy of the slave-holding aristocracy. In spite of the resistance of Messrs. Douglas and Walker, the Southern wing of the party has achieved a decisive political victory over the Northern wing, so far as the party alone is concerned. Satisfied with this triumph, and with it having driven Mr. Douglas into a position utterly destructive of his prospects before the Charleston Convention in 1860, the moderate Southern men are disposed to withdraw from the contest, and abandon Kansas to the Republicans.
They are waiting to hear the result of the elec-tion in Kansas before they finally develop their plans of evading the issue. The mode which will probably be adopted, has been partially indicated in con-versation within a few days past by the President and Secretary of State. The project seems to be this: The Lecompton Constitution, in whatever shape it may come to Congress—if it come at all, which there is some reason to doubt—will be sent back to the people of Kansas for ratification or re-jection by a fair vote, accompanied by an act pro-viding for the contingency of its rejection, by author-izing the people to elect a new Convention and form another Constitution.
The fire-eaters, no doubt, will oppose to the ut-most such a solution of a difficulty from whose continuance they expect the opening of an opportu-nity to put in operation their plans of breaking up the Union. But they can be overruled in Congress, except in the contingency of the success at the recent election of the "Constitution with Slavery." If the Lecompton Constitution in that form comes here, an unhesitating and unqualified acceptance of it will be demanded by the united South. Above all things, the Administration dreads this contingency, and agnets were long ago sent to Kansas with instructions to avert it, if possible, by persuading the Pro-Slavery men not to vote, and if they did vote, by persuading Mr. Calhoun to put the Constitution in his breeches pocket, and keep it there, rather than to send so inflammable a docu-ment to Congress to add inextinguishable fury to the flames of discord that are consuming the Demo-cratic party.
The Democratic side of the Senate gave yester-day a striking illustration of their keen sense the financial state of the Treasury, for the relic of which they have just asked and obtained an ex-traordinary issue of Treasury Notes. It was pro- posed by Mr. Bright of Indiana to make the clerks of the Senate Committees permanent, and to give them salaries of $1,500 and $1,800. Mr. Fessen-den strongly and clearly exposed the impropriety of this, and Mr. Benjamin of Louisiana openly de-nounced it as an attempt to provide sinecures for the friends and dependents of Senators. He thought it would be much more manly to propose out-right an appropriation for granting money to the hangers-on of Senators. It would be better to do the thing openly than to attempt to cover it up. The proposition was voted down, all the Republi-cans opposing it. The salaries proposed would have amounted to about $25,000 per annum.
From Our Own Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, Friday, Dec. 25, 1857.
Christmas was ushered in last night by discharges of firearms and fireworks in the manner, though not to the extent to which the Fourth of July is celebrated in the towns of the North. This morn-ing there is a genuine and appropriate Northern celebration of the day in the shape of a driving snow-storm, the first of the season.
The proceedings of the House of Representatives in relation to Utah seem to have been hasty and ill-advised. The formal declaration by Congress that Utah is in a state of open rebellion is equivalent to a declaration of war against that Territory. It needs no argument to show that at all times and in all circumstances a declaration of war against anybody should not be made by the National Legislature without the greatest consideration and full and authentic knowledge of the state of the case. A declaration of war by the Federal Government against a Territory or State of the Union is an especially serious matter, though in the case of Utah its chief practical importance is its future possible significance as a precedent. If, in the heat and passion of a newspaper excitement, Utah can be summarily declared to be in open rebellion, so may Massachu-setts, or Maryland, or South Carolina, or Virginia. In the case of Utah, its remoteness, the peculiar character and small amount of its population, make it unlikely that any serious immediate detriment will result from putting it under the ban of the Re-public; yet in principle there is exactly the same reason for exercising caution and prudence in deal-ing with Utah as with the most powerful State of the Union. Brigham Young and his disciples and doubtless traitors in intention, but Congress has yet no official knowledge of any overt act of rebellion on their part. And of overt acts alone can the Gov-ernment constitutionally take cognizance. The plunder and destruction of a train of contractors wagons is an act of robbery, which subjects its per-petrators to severe penalties; but as the train was not under the flag of the United States it is not treason. It may be morally just to hold the Terri-tory of Utah responsible for the acts of these bandit-ti, but it certainly is not legally right without more satisfactory evidence than is yet before Congress. A House that would declare Utah in rebellion be-cause of the plunder of a baggage train and of Brig-ham Young's foolish speeches might be expected to put Massachusetts in the same category for a riot-ous attack on a Court-House or for the resolutions of an Abolition Convention. There is already a great disposition on the part of the Federal Gov-ernment to revive the exploded and dangerous theo-ries of constructive treason, and such a tendency cannot be too jealously guarded against.
This movement in the House about Utah origi-nated on the Southern side of the Chamber. It was started by a gentleman from Arkansas, thought a large body of the Republicans voted for it, incon-siderately I think. We may expect from the South in Congress all manner of dodges to get rid of the Kansas question, or at least, to diminish its promi-nence, The South besides would perhaps not be averse to establish a precedent under the authority of which the delegation from an Abolition State may yet be expelled or the State itself formally made war upon.

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FROM WASHINGTON.
From Our Own Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, Thursday, Dec. 24,1857.
There are strong symptoms that the Administra-tion intends to abandon or evade the issue it has made on the Kansas question. The more timid or the more prudent of the slave holding directors of the President are beginning to feel alarm at the ominous look of the storm they have raised; and though the fire-eaters continue to urge them for- ward, they foresee and hesitate. A considerable portion of the Southern leaders are not yet ripe for the scheme of disunion and civil war which is at the bottom of the attempt to drive the Free-State men of Kansas into initiating revolutionary move-ments. Their plans hitherto have extended no far-ther than the intellectual and moral subjugation of the Democratic party to a thorough going and avowed Pre-Slavery policy, with the hope of nominating and electing a slaveholder to the Presidency in 1860. Their object has been sufficiently accomplished as the ready acquiescence, or rather active coopera-tion, of a Northern President, the Northern mem-bers of the Cabinet, and a majority of the Northern Democratic Senators and Representatives, and of Northern Democratic presses, in the attempt to force a Pro-Slavery Constitution upon Kansas—an attempt persisted in, not from any expectation of practical success, but simply to degrade the North-ern Democracy and purge it of any lingering re-mains of opposition to the supremacy of the slave-holding aristocracy. In spite of the resistance of Messrs. Douglas and Walker, the Southern wing of the party has achieved a decisive political victory over the Northern wing, so far as the party alone is concerned. Satisfied with this triumph, and with it having driven Mr. Douglas into a position utterly destructive of his prospects before the Charleston Convention in 1860, the moderate Southern men are disposed to withdraw from the contest, and abandon Kansas to the Republicans.
They are waiting to hear the result of the elec-tion in Kansas before they finally develop their plans of evading the issue. The mode which will probably be adopted, has been partially indicated in con-versation within a few days past by the President and Secretary of State. The project seems to be this: The Lecompton Constitution, in whatever shape it may come to Congress—if it come at all, which there is some reason to doubt—will be sent back to the people of Kansas for ratification or re-jection by a fair vote, accompanied by an act pro-viding for the contingency of its rejection, by author-izing the people to elect a new Convention and form another Constitution.
The fire-eaters, no doubt, will oppose to the ut-most such a solution of a difficulty from whose continuance they expect the opening of an opportu-nity to put in operation their plans of breaking up the Union. But they can be overruled in Congress, except in the contingency of the success at the recent election of the "Constitution with Slavery." If the Lecompton Constitution in that form comes here, an unhesitating and unqualified acceptance of it will be demanded by the united South. Above all things, the Administration dreads this contingency, and agnets were long ago sent to Kansas with instructions to avert it, if possible, by persuading the Pro-Slavery men not to vote, and if they did vote, by persuading Mr. Calhoun to put the Constitution in his breeches pocket, and keep it there, rather than to send so inflammable a docu-ment to Congress to add inextinguishable fury to the flames of discord that are consuming the Demo-cratic party.
The Democratic side of the Senate gave yester-day a striking illustration of their keen sense the financial state of the Treasury, for the relic of which they have just asked and obtained an ex-traordinary issue of Treasury Notes. It was pro- posed by Mr. Bright of Indiana to make the clerks of the Senate Committees permanent, and to give them salaries of $1,500 and $1,800. Mr. Fessen-den strongly and clearly exposed the impropriety of this, and Mr. Benjamin of Louisiana openly de-nounced it as an attempt to provide sinecures for the friends and dependents of Senators. He thought it would be much more manly to propose out-right an appropriation for granting money to the hangers-on of Senators. It would be better to do the thing openly than to attempt to cover it up. The proposition was voted down, all the Republi-cans opposing it. The salaries proposed would have amounted to about $25,000 per annum.
From Our Own Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, Friday, Dec. 25, 1857.
Christmas was ushered in last night by discharges of firearms and fireworks in the manner, though not to the extent to which the Fourth of July is celebrated in the towns of the North. This morn-ing there is a genuine and appropriate Northern celebration of the day in the shape of a driving snow-storm, the first of the season.
The proceedings of the House of Representatives in relation to Utah seem to have been hasty and ill-advised. The formal declaration by Congress that Utah is in a state of open rebellion is equivalent to a declaration of war against that Territory. It needs no argument to show that at all times and in all circumstances a declaration of war against anybody should not be made by the National Legislature without the greatest consideration and full and authentic knowledge of the state of the case. A declaration of war by the Federal Government against a Territory or State of the Union is an especially serious matter, though in the case of Utah its chief practical importance is its future possible significance as a precedent. If, in the heat and passion of a newspaper excitement, Utah can be summarily declared to be in open rebellion, so may Massachu-setts, or Maryland, or South Carolina, or Virginia. In the case of Utah, its remoteness, the peculiar character and small amount of its population, make it unlikely that any serious immediate detriment will result from putting it under the ban of the Re-public; yet in principle there is exactly the same reason for exercising caution and prudence in deal-ing with Utah as with the most powerful State of the Union. Brigham Young and his disciples and doubtless traitors in intention, but Congress has yet no official knowledge of any overt act of rebellion on their part. And of overt acts alone can the Gov-ernment constitutionally take cognizance. The plunder and destruction of a train of contractors wagons is an act of robbery, which subjects its per-petrators to severe penalties; but as the train was not under the flag of the United States it is not treason. It may be morally just to hold the Terri-tory of Utah responsible for the acts of these bandit-ti, but it certainly is not legally right without more satisfactory evidence than is yet before Congress. A House that would declare Utah in rebellion be-cause of the plunder of a baggage train and of Brig-ham Young's foolish speeches might be expected to put Massachusetts in the same category for a riot-ous attack on a Court-House or for the resolutions of an Abolition Convention. There is already a great disposition on the part of the Federal Gov-ernment to revive the exploded and dangerous theo-ries of constructive treason, and such a tendency cannot be too jealously guarded against.
This movement in the House about Utah origi-nated on the Southern side of the Chamber. It was started by a gentleman from Arkansas, thought a large body of the Republicans voted for it, incon-siderately I think. We may expect from the South in Congress all manner of dodges to get rid of the Kansas question, or at least, to diminish its promi-nence, The South besides would perhaps not be averse to establish a precedent under the authority of which the delegation from an Abolition State may yet be expelled or the State itself formally made war upon.